


Red's Return

by GachMoBrea



Series: Donald Ressler-Reddington Series [1]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: "I am NOT your father.", AU, Gen, I'm sorry?, LONG Secret Conversations, OOC?, Plot Twist, Scene More Than Story, Secrets, What If...?, bad title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 20:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7452262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set Mid-Season 1, with a twist. Raymond "Red" Reddington has returned to the team, sort of. Only Elizabeth "Lizzy" Keen knows of said return and the man's reason for it. Our Profiler finally gets in on one of the man's deep, dark secrets...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red's Return

Special Agent Elisabeth Keen, exhausted from a long day's work at the Post Office, barely had her key in the door when she felt something off about her surroundings.  
Training kicking in automatically, the brunette finishes unlocking the door before discreetly pulling out her weapon. Gun in hand, she carefully enters the house she and her husband share; grateful that the man was away on another teaching trip. A lamp turns on suddenly, making the agent immediately point to the gun at the source and identify the shooter.  
"Lizzy," Raymond Reddington smiles pleasantly at her. "So good of you to come."  
"This is my home, Red," Liz growls, pushing the front door closed before entering the living room where the man was sitting in the single plush chair. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"  
"Here, there, everywhere," Red waves his hand as if to encompass the entirety of his latest adventures. "I'm here because I have a very delicate matter to discuss with you, Lizzy." His voice lowers into a gravely sort of sincerity that pique's the agent's interest, "You are one of the few people I do trust in this world."  
"Okay," Liz takes a seat on the couch, catching a glimpse of Dembe's shadow in the kitchen and noticing the drawn curtains. "I'm listening."  
"Since the beginning of this venture, you have had a slew of questions as to why I had decided to 'throw my criminal career away' and start handing out my secrets to the suits of the FBI," the man begins.  
"But there's more to your plan than just eliminating competition," the agent frowns.  
"I wouldn't label those we've taken down as competition," Red smiles. "More like, thorns in an otherwise beautifully crafted criminal world."  
"So, now that you're back," Liz starts slowly. "You're ready to actually answer all my questions?"  
"No," the criminal smiles at the agent's deepening frown and growing confusion. "I am here to answer a few of them."  
Red leans forward in his chair, ever present hat plucked off his knee so that it can rest gently in his hands.  
"When I talked to you on that phone the day before I disappeared, I told you the truth, Lizzy," Raymond's voice lacked his usual theatric luster, it was all deep confessions and open eyes that begged to be believed. "But I do have a secret child who is around your age; who I must protect."  
"Do I know him or her?" Liz pushes before the man can even think of lying to her. "Are you actually going to tell me? Or is this another one of your games?"  
"No game, Elizabeth," the man shakes his head minutely. "But before I tell you, I need your word that you will not tell another soul."  
"Who would I-"  
"Your word, Elizabeth," Red interrupts her, voice a little deeper than she's ever heard and so demanding that it makes a chill run down her spine. The well dressed criminal before her rarely used her full name. To use it twice within a minute was strange enough to make her curiosity come to almost a boiling point.  
She nods, scooting a cushion closer to him, "You have my word."  
Red mimics her nod, reassuring himself before he looks her straight in the eyes and tells her, "Donald Ressler."

Elizabeth blinks, thinking the man was joking with her; that this was another rouse that she'd emotionally pay for later when she bought into it.  
But Reddington hasn't looked away, hasn't shown any signs of deceit as he keeps staring at her. Liz doesn't know why, but she believes him. Or wants to believe him.  
Doesn't stop her from making sure, of course.  
"How?" she shakes her head, finally breaking eye contact. "How is that possible? Ressler has a family. He has a mom and a dad. I've seen their picture!"  
"He does, indeed, have two parents," Red allows. "But only one of them bore him."  
"How could you possibly be his father?" the agent scoffs.  
"I don't condone my past discretions, but I also don't convince myself that they didn't happen," the criminal tilts his head, finding the brim of his hat interesting. "Back when I still had a 'regular life' as you people enjoy calling it. One where I played the father to a loving wife and had the adoration of a daughter," the man's shoulders sag ever so slightly, eyes half lidded as the memories played across them. "I got in a terrible fight with the Missus and we parted for a short while."  
"You, had an affair," Lis simplifies, surprised for no reason she could think of.  
"A one night stand that turned into a three week vacation for the both of us," a corner of Red's lips turns up in a modicum of a smile. "She wasn't faring too well with her own husband. Fertility problems."  
Elizabeth can feel her eyes grow wide, "So when she found out she was pregnant?"  
"I found her crying in the bathroom of our little villa," Ren leans back again, legs crossing as he tosses his hat onto the couch where the agent was sitting. "She had a little white stick clutched tightly in both hands."  
The criminal shakes his head, "We ended it there. While the cool breeze wafted over the palm branches and the ocean beat against the shore. It was a tragic end to a romance that never should have been."  
"Did you love her?" Liz finds herself asking. "Ressler's mother?"  
"What is love?" Red shrugs. "Human beings are so capable of violence that I think it hard for us to completely understand the word."  
"What happened after she went back home?" Liz presses after the man grew silent. "Were you involved in Ressler's life? Did you know he had become an FBI Agent?"  
Reddington barks out a surprised laugh, "Heavens no. I would have come up with something to stop that process from happening straight from the sign up sheet."  
"I cut all ties with Mrs. Ressler the second I put her on that plane," Red's eyes dart towards his hat, perhaps wishing he still held it for something to do with his hands as he continues. "Until Brussels."  
"Brussels?" the name sounds familiar. After a second it clicks that Anslo Garrick had mentioned it while he had the two men trapped in that box.  
The Box.  
Keen's eyes warily search the man's face as she asks, "How did you handle what happened with Garrick?"  
Red's eyes harden as he looks away, "Anslo got what he deserved."  
"But," the man pipes up, dark voice suddenly gone from him. "You asked about Brussels. That's where I re-connected with my son."  
"Ressler knows your his father?" Liz can't believe that one of her teammates, her partner, had kept something so big from her.  
"No, no, no, my dear," the criminal assures her with a small smile. "Donny's as clueless about this as you were before you stepped through that door."  
"Then what do you mean by re-connect?"  
"I knew the FBI, the CIA, and all the other alphabetically inclined agencies would send out their best or just some of their bright men and women after me. While Special Agent Donald Ressler came chasing after me, trying to dig up what he could; I had my people dig up what they could on Special Agent Donald Ressler." Red's smile grows large and fond. "I never really knew the woman I took to bed. She had used her maiden name when she met me. Clever girl. But the second I saw a family photo of the proud, All-American Ressler clan, I knew. Her face may have aged, but it hadn't change. Not for me."  
"The day I remembered I had a son was the day I was almost killed by him."  
Elizabeth takes a breath, lets the information sink in as the man before her straightens his already perfect jacket.  
"Orphanage," Red chuckles. "Amazing how one word, an adjective in this case, could change a man's ability to pull the trigger."  
At Lizzy's confused look, the criminal explains, "I was traveling from Brussels on an orphanage train. Garrick leaked my itinerary to Don, but our boy scout wouldn't dare run the risk of endangering those poor children. It's probably what saved his life."  
Reddington grows quiet. The hallway clock's ticking echoes in the room like the reverberating sound of a gong.

"Why are you telling me all this?"  
Red turns his calculating eyes to the agent.  
"What do you need from me that you'd risk Ressler finding out about you?" Liz adds.  
"The reason why I came to the FBI, the reason I specifically asked for you Agent Elizabeth Keen, is because your background worked perfectly for my plan to root out an assassin," Red once again leans forward, one elbow resting on the arm of the chair while the other is left to gesticulate when needed. "Someone found out that my entire family was not dead. That I had an illegitimate child running around on this earth. And that someone put a bounty on that child."  
"Ressler's in danger?" Liz's heart spikes with worry, but she calmly forces herself to remain seated.  
"I'm sorry for what I did to you, Lizzy, I really am," Reddington smiles apologetically. "But I needed a person I could use to make that mysterious force show his hand. So I could cut it off and prevent any harm from coming to Donald."  
"You used me, made me think I mattered to you so that this fellow, whoever he is, would send his assassin and you could catch said assassin and force him to make you tell him who is employer is?" It's believably what Reddington would do. The man was constantly manipulating people, even when they didn't know it.  
"I am sorry, Lizzy," Red's voice softens, sounding almost teary in it's kind tone. "I care for you, honestly, but we are not flesh and blood."  
"I take it you haven't found him yet then," Liz crosses her arms. "The mystery guy? You didn't unmask him or find him, did you? That's why you came back."  
"I thought Anslo was the assassin," the criminal smirks humorlessly. "I was mistaken. He had just seen what I've been trying to project to others, my concern for your well-being, and took advantage of it. He had nothing to do with whoever's after my son."  
"Why tell me then?" the agent frowns. "Why not keep up the charade? Why not make me keep second guessing myself that you might be my father?"  
"Because I saw how much that was hurting you," Red tells her simply, openly. "I didn't want to do that to you anymore, Lizzy. I," he hesitates for a second. "couldn't do that do you."  
Raymond Reddington, hardened criminal, master manipulator, looked like a broken and lost man sitting in that chair. Liz knew that there was still a strong possibility that she was being played, again, but there was one very good reason to help the man out anyway. A very good reason named, Donald Ressler.

"I'll help you," Liz tells the man firmly, confidently. "But," she uncrosses her arms, points a finger in the man's face. "If you're lying about any of this, if this turns out to just be one of your intricate plans, I swear Reddington, I will lock you back up in that box myself."  
Red smiles, face smoothing minutely in relief, "I would expect nothing less from the very Special Agent Elizabeth Keen."

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own NOTHING! I don't own the Show or the Characters!
> 
> Note:  
> I feel like this is more of a cemented backstory then a 'story-story'. Sorry about that.  
> This is where I'll go when my brain needs to rest from writing about Leonard Snart (from "The Flash").


End file.
